Unlike domain names, hashtags on Twitter aren't owned by anyone, so it's common to see a trend originate with one group and then be co-opted by another. We saw this tug-of-war today over the hashtag #DNCin4Words, which attracted contributions from both supporters and detractors of President Barack Obama.
Below are the top 25 most popular entries among 18,178 that the Signal was able to parse from the Twitter data feed, as determined by those that were either highly retweeted or so obvious that multiple people came up with them. As you see, there's a mix of negative or sarcastic slogans along with a handful of what appear to be genuinely positive ones.
| entry | frequency |
| where's mitt's tax returns? | 302 |
| you didn't build that | 273 |
| budget? what's a budget? | 109 |
| feigning compassion, peddling hate | 101 |
| we h8 others' greed | 101 |
| mitt romney's tax returns | 84 |
| obama is our man | 69 |
| why work? vote democrat | 68 |
| mene mene tekel upharsin | 57 |
| independent blacks not welcome | 56 |
| who made this mess? | 54 |
| class gender race hustlers | 53 |
| change that never happens | 50 |
| hey look, a squirrel | 49 |
| women are people too | 49 |
| this seat is taken | 46 |
| are you embarrassed yet? | 45 |
| skin color, not character | 45 |
| we exploit all minorities | 43 |
| bank of america stadium | 41 |
| my record doesn't matter | 41 |
| we still blame bush | 40 |
| empty promises empty chair | 39 |
| obama 2012 romney 1040 | 36 |
| paul ryan scares us | 35 |
Unfortunately, the Signal's Twitter analysis engines didn't quite pick up this tag soon enough to determine who started it. The analytics firm Topsy first registered it around 8 p.m. ET yesterday, but the Twitter API does not allow searches past a certain point. As these things go, however, it matters far less who started it than who stole the reins.
Below is a graph of the volume that we picked up.
DNCin4Words
